Apple's iCloud and iTunes Match Are Top Cloud Media Services in U.S.

macrumors bot

According to a report from Strategy Analytics (via Engadget) Apple's iCloud and iTunes Match are the most frequently used cloud media services, with a combined usage total of 27%.

To get its numbers, Strategy Analytics asked 2,300 Americans the following question: "Have you ever used any of the following online digital locker services which enabled you to store music, video (including TV shows and movies) or games online ("in the cloud" and stream them to an Internet connected device?"

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Dropbox came in second at 17% and Amazon's Cloud Drive came in third with 15%. Google Drive came in fourth, with Ultraviolet, Samsung Music Hub, Online, LG Cloud, and Galkai following behind.

The survey revealed that the majority of people (at 55%) had never used a cloud media service at all, and as Strategy Analytics points out, Dropbox, with its second place ranking, is the only service without an associated content ecosystem. Music is a major factor in cloud usage with 90% of Apple, Amazon, and Google cloud users storing music. 45% of Dropbox users use the service to store music.

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"Music is currently the key battleground in the war for cloud domination. Google is tempting users by giving away free storage for 20,000 songs which can be streamed to any Android device, a feature both Amazon and Apple charge annual subscriptions for," observes Ed Barton, Strategy Analytics' Director of Digital Media.

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Usage of cloud storage is skewed heavily towards younger people, being especially popular among 20-24 year olds. iCloud and iTunes Match were the only services with more female than male users, and Google Drive skewed towards a male subscription base.

macrumors 6502a

Well, iCloud doesn't require any file management. You turn it on and forget it. So simple to use literally anyone can do it. That isn't the case with Dropbox and most other cloud services. There's virtually no learning curve because there really isn't anything to learn.

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 6502

So ironic -- the disconnect between what gets reported in the press and reality is so stark: Apple is more successful than Google as a Cloud company, Apple is more successful than Amazon as an eTailer, etc.

macrumors member

It's important to qualify this study looked exclusively at services used as "digital lockers" for media files. I would like to see metrics from users of cloud services for documents and business materials. I suspect iCloud wouldn't even make the list.

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68020

Does this include anyone who downloaded a previously purchased song to their Apple device?

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You're already an iCloud user when you just download something from the App Store, or take a picture and Photo Stream is on.

It's kinda the same thing with Apple's own claim that "Game Center" is the 'most popular' gaming network in the world. Basically, as soon as you launch a game on your iPhone than there's a big chance you will automatically connect with Game Center.

macrumors 68000

This is dumb, because it's inherently part of the ecosystem. I don't even know if you have to manually enable iCloud when purchasing an iDevice, but I can assure you if it provides the option, most consumers blindly press yes.

I have 2 Macs and 2 iDevices and I have never used iCloud for anything actually useful (aside from Photostream, which doesn't even sync videos).

Dropbox all day, errr'day - 25GB gets me a long way in syncing files between my Macs and accessing files from my iDevices (and any computer with an internet connection).

macrumors 601

I don't care for MS/SkyDrive since I'm now a Dropbox subscriber (100GB) and I have iCloud, Google Drive and Skydrive by default, but my main is Dropbox.

I did iTunes Match for the 1st year was out, but since they haven't bothered to improve it since it launched, I canceled it. All they needed to do was 1) have a check box for only explicit content 2) stream, rather than download to my iDevice.

macrumors 68000

i use both iCloud and drop box - as do most of my friends who i share files with (over drop box). iCloud i just use for personal backups. so each serves a different purposes. comparing iCloud users to Dropbox users does not make any sense for the purposes of what this study is trying to prove.

iTunes Match for $25/yr is a great deal though - as i never need to have my entire music collection with me. i can get away with having a 32GB iPhone yet have 88GB+ of music at my finger tips

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